Nine Hundred and Eleven
by faded harmony
Summary: "It's today, isn't it." Travis looked down at his brother. It wasn't a question. They both knew. The other eleven year old bowed his head. "Nine eleven." he said. "Nine hundred and eleven." "Just like us," Connor said. "We're eleven now too." The day that will not be forgotten, 9/11. Oneshot. Heroes aren't forgotten, and this is for the heroes and the people that lost their lives.


**I apologize for not posting this yesterday, I had a little bit too much overdose on homework. Ah, whatever. So this is in dedication of 9/11. All the extra facts in here, like the times and the dates were put in specifically, and this story is about Connor and Travis. Leo isn't the only one who hides his pain with pranks and jokes. (Horribly depressing, if you think about it. No? Meh whatever.) This is mostly random because I really don't know how Connor and Travis got to camp, and the timeline might be a little messed up, but I don't really care. It flows so I'm gonna hop in this stream and floooowwwwwwww.**

**Woo that got super weird just now. Click for more wierdness! Hm, you should feel stupid because that did nothing. Oh, what am I forgetting...**

**Disclaimer: Me no own Percy Jackson and his fantasy world. Seriously, if I was Rick Riordan, I wouldn't be on here at all. I'd be trolling all my readers and ruining their lives with cliffhangers. (LEVEL UP!)**

* * *

"It doesn't work that way." Travis told his younger brother, Connor. "Mommy has to work today. We have to stay here."

"Yeah," Connor said. "But I really- really love to put things in her hair, and she doesn't get mad. The teacher does, though."

Travis laughed at his younger brother. "We put chicken poo in her hair."

"Yeah, we sure did." Connor pushed his older brother playfully on the shoulders, and he spotted a collection of little girls with pigtails and little braids had gotten off the swing.

"Do you want to?" Travis eyed his brother. "We're gonna be in a lot of trouble for this."

"No kidding," Connor agreed. "Let's do it!"

They snuck along the edge of the bushes, being careful not to shake any of the leaves out and alarm the nearby children of their presence. The girls had fished out their matching sparkly pink Hello Kitty lunch boxes, and were talking and giggling and trading over dolls. Lame. At least Mythomagic was cool.

They waited until one of the girls stood up and yelled "TAG!" and tapped the shoulder of the girl next to her. Little adorable pink skirts flying and child blouses flying, they dashed off to play on the playground again. Travis gave a crazy, half Eureka! and half animated sly grin, and they snuck their hands into the lunchboxes. They dug their fists into the ground, pulling out their secret prank, and stuffing it into the princess lunchboxes lined up so perfectly on the bench. When one of the girls called her friends over to finish their lunch of delicate peanut butter sandwich delights, they both snuck their hands quickly behind them and out of sight in the bushes.

The first girl opened her lunchbox. Travis held back a giggle as they waited suspensefully. It was well worth it.

"AAAAHHHH!" The girl screamed in a shrill voice, dropping the lunchbox. "AAHHH! EEWWW! EEEKK!"

The other girls turned away from their lunches, and when they had all seen the insides, they threw the lunches down in disgust and ran around in little circles, screaming and flailing their arms around like giant scared chickens. "EEWWW!" One of them screamed. "THAT'S GROSS!"

Connor helped his brother, as they slunk away from the bushes, high fiving one another and laughing. "Con," Travis said, sucking in air so he could attempt to stop laughing. "That was the _best_ prank _ever_."

"I know," Connor smothered his laughter into his cupped hands. "Come on, Steve's waiting for us. Better find him before he leaves without us."

Travis laughed at his brother. "That was only that_ one_ time, and that was because we put raw meat in his shoes."

The other six year old received a merry twinkle in his eye, and grabbed his brother's hand. "Come on." he said. "Today we get to see mom."

* * *

Their mother was a businesswoman. She was all serious like in her job, and she didn't smile when she was in Tall Building. Tall Building was a barrier for Connor and Travis, and they didn't like Tall Building. Tall Step-Dad was even more of a barrier. He never walked them into the building, but they both knew the shortcuts and all the main staircases and fire escapes. "Out you go," Their stepfather, Steve grunted as he pulled over to the side of the curb. Connor, who was on the passenger side, popped open the door, and clumsily undid his belt buckle. The large black SUV was hard to miss in the sea of massive traffic jammed cars, but you could get lost very easily in New York City. Being the sons of a woman who traveled a lot- and frequently- they got to go everywhere with her. They had been born up farther north, in a little town of Vermont. Ever since their mother got her new job, they had been traveling all over the states, and even to Canada a few times. Connor and Travis didn't speak French, and they didn't particularly like the people of Canada from their strange customs, but as long as their mother was with them, it was okay.

Connor leaped out the door as it swung open and almost hit a cement cylinder used to keep cars from parking so close to the building. "Wait for me!" Travis said, as the door almost swung shut on him. He and Connor were small, and it was a big jump from the bottom step of the door to the ground.

Connor looked up at his brother. "It's okay," he assured Travis. "You can do it. It's not a high jump."

"Hurry up!" Steve roared. "I am gonna miss my shift because of you kids!"

Travis took a deep breath, and took a tender step that hung in the air, while the pull of gravity helped him along, and he landed safe on his feet, relieved.

Connor pushed the door closed, as he took his brother along and up the large steps of the Tall familiar building. The black SUV swerved into traffic, honking and causing minor mayhem on the streets; nothing more than the pranks Connor and Travis pulled.

"See?" Connor assured his brother. "Nothing to worry about."

Travis hesitated at the front door, where the lobbyist at her seat was usually sitting. They could see her silhouette through the textured and fabricated glass door. "Con," he said, lowering his voice. "Are you feeling what I'm feeling?"

Connor waved his arms over his face. "I just want some _A/C_," he complained. "It's September, you think they'd cool down the heat or something."

Travis sighed. "Nevermind." His brother's back faced him as he pushed through the doors with ease, heading up the floor their mother was currently working at. Travis Stoll looked up to the towers standing over him- so grand, and so tall- he felt insignificant standing next to them. The first was a little farther away, but they were identical in almost every aspect. The cloudless sunny blue sky, with the sun shining happily and carelessly, like him and his brother approached their daily lives. Travis looked up again to the top of the nearest World Trade Center towers, as a chill went down his neck. An ominous, almost haunting warning.

His brother walked outside again, his little school bag swinging and nearly wrapping over his legs and tripping him. "Travis, are you coming?"

"Yeah..." Travis murmured. "I'm coming."

He followed his younger twin inside the tower.

* * *

The elevators were the best part of the building.

The lobby was okay, but nothing compared to the elevators. Travis walked inside the metal doors, and his brother reached up on his tiptoes to reach the top button. The elevator whirred to life, and they braced their legs.

_14...15...16..._

"This is gonna be awesome," Connor grinned at Travis, who grinned back. "Let's just hope the security guards don't scold us again."  
"Oh no," Travis said in mock-horror. "The scolding!"

They dissolved into laughter.

_38...39...40...41..._

"What do you think Mom has planned for an exciting day ahead of us?" Travis asked his brother excitedly.

"I just want some candy," Connor moaned. "Candy!"

"Candy!" Travis agreed. "But we have to say hello to mom first."

_60...61...62..._

"Hmm...maybe the candy can wait, I want to tell mom about our prank at the park this morning." Connor smiled like a crooked crocodile. "She'll probably freak."

"So mature for six year olds," Travis sighed, in reminiscence of those strange words a teacher had told them, but she had a snarky accent with it. Probably sarcasm. Sarcasm was Travis' second language, besides English, and dyslexia. Or would it be third? Well he sucked at math anyways. "What does mature even mean?"

_65...66...67..._

The elevator came to a stop. Travis and Connor grinned at each other, and they simultaneously pressed the button at the same time. _1._ First floor.

"Here we go," Travis said, trying to hide the excitement in his voice. "Down we GOoooo!"

The elevator sped at a super fast speed down the racks, and him and Connor jumped in the air, catching air for a good solid thirty seconds before their feet hit the bottom of the elevator when it hit the bottom of the floors. Him and Connor laughed uncontrollably, making rollercoaster screams and in general, being kids. The elevator doors opened to show two especially annoyed security guards, who glared down at the two troublemakers.

Travis gulped, and pressed the floor number 82. Please close, please...

Before they could get into anymore trouble, the doors slid shut and the elevator headed up to the eighty fifth floor solemnly and silently.

* * *

"Boys," Their mother said. "I think I left something in the lobby." They had spent the last ten minutes playing with their mother's office collection. She had a snow globe, a bunch of tiny trinkets to fool with, which were laid on the windowsill of her little cube of workspace. She frowned as she went through her purse. Travis fiddled with her watch, which read the current time. It was early in the morning, but their mom was an early bird, and they were early to rise to see her.

"Not now mom," Connor whined. "You just want to get rid of us."

Their mother gave him a dark look. She had tiny, delicate black glasses, and a tight black business suit. Woman didn't do business, people had mocked her. She proved them all wrong. It didn't sort her usual carefree attitude, her short wavy bronze hair that was curled around the edges to make her look 'professional'. The minute she left Tall Building number two, she was in her normal zone, of playing childish games with her two favorite sons, or playing tiny pranks on them. They only pranked her back slightly, but they were just glad to have a mom who cared.

She took the watch from Travis, and frowned. "I'm supposed to pick Amy off at the airport in two hours. How bad is the traffic?"

"Pretty bad," Connor chirped. "You should probably get a head start. We can stay here!"

Their mother groaned, and then snapped "Absolutely not."

"Why not?" Connor whined at his mother, while Travis went to sneak his mother's watch. The gold backing was lined with an assortment of a gleaming bronze color, that didn't scratch or dent. When they had asked about it, when they were young and a little more innocent, their mother had told them it was a gift from their father. She told them that it was the last thing she had from him, and that it was very special. She said it was to protect her from the time monsters that made her late for work. They knew now- as big boys that wasn't true. But the watch was special, no matter what it was used for.

_8:44._ Travis cocked his head to the side, as he blocked out his brother arguing they were "mature and responsible" boys, and they could handle being in the office for a little while. Her co-workers could keep an eye on them. Travis watched the little second hand ticking on the tiny not-quite gold watch, with the special engraving on the back. It wasn't english, as far as Travis could tell. He didn't know how, but he had a feeling he understood what it said.

Twenty more seconds to the minute... They had just been learning about how to tell time in school. Travis didn't really understand why numbers kept track of everything, but he knew which hands on the watch did what. The big hand was the minute hand, that moved as the minutes passed. The smaller hand beside it was an hour hand, which currently rested on the numeric eight. The tiny one that moved very quickly, was counting the seconds.

_Ten seconds...nine...eight...seven...six..._

"It's not I don't trust you two," his mother said with finality to a spirit-crushed Connor. "I don't want either of you two to get hurt."

Three...two...one...

_8:45._

That was when the loud crashing noise interrupted everything, sending violent shockwaves through the building. Travis felt the building tremble from the bottom, all the way up to the top, where his mother was currently working at.

Their mother went from I'm mad at you, to Panic now. It was amazing how quickly her mood shifted. "Connor, Travis," she said firmly. "Did that have anything to do with you?"

Connor and Travis shook their heads in unison. "Why?" Their mother didn't answer that. "I want you to take the elevator to the lobby," she said. "Quickly. I'll meet you at the bottom. This might be some kind of drill."

Looking out the window, Travis saw plumes of smoke, and the horrid sound of screams. He was pretty sure that something was on fire...the building next to them? But who would want to take out the Twin Towers, The World Trade Centers of New York?

They exited their mother's cubicle, to find a small crowd of people were taking the stairwells. "The elevator is jammed," one of the men in a black striped suit informed one of his bosses or co-workers. "We gotta take the stairs."

Travis grabbed his brother's hand, which slipped away. Desperate, he grabbed his brother's backpack strap and pulled him towards the stairs. "Come on," he said. "This way. It's the only way down,"

"We're on like, the top floors!" Connor whined. "That's a long walk down!"

"Come on," Travis encouraged his brother. "We can slide down the banisters."

* * *

It was jam-packed outside, sirens screaming, fire-trucks buzzing alarms, and people screaming and panicking in all general in the onslaught of the enormous crowd. Connor dragged his brother down the steps of the other Twin tower, to a different side of the street, where they could have a better view of the problem.

The North tower was in flames. Fires were spreading up and down the towers, while people streamed out both sides of the doors, while firefighters and rescue crews futilely tried to push past the crowds and reach the people above.

"What about the people up there?" Connor pointed to the top of the tower. "Trav, do you think they're stuck?"

Travis was frozen in shock to answer his brother's question. The perfect sky blue sky had suddenly turned horrible and threatening to him, like it was going to rip apart and unleash horrors from all corners.

A news cast truck was pulled up near the tower. "- what seems to be the result of a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Twin Towers," the woman said into a microphone, her face calm and also somewhat freaking out into the camera to the people's cable in cities all across the country. "The damage has hit mostly the-"

She was interrupted by the loud gunning of a plane engine that was heard up above them. Connor and Travis looked up to see the split-second flash of a giant underbelly of a metal plane, as the second tower- the one their mom was currently in- was hit in an explosion of fire and debris. The top half of the tower disappeared under a plume of ash and smoke, and then a second explosion rocketed from the original hit.

"MOM!" Travis screamed, running for the lobby steps. Connor grabbed his shoulder, holding him in place. "Travis, no!" He yelled as people screamed and ran as more debris fell from the targeted building. "She'll be fine, she told us to wait out here!"

"MOM!" Travis screamed louder, pulling at his brother. Connor trembled next to him, and Travis heaved giant breaths, while dust collected in his lungs. "MOM!"

They sat on the steps of a nearby building, scanning the faces of people who were running out of the building in large unorganized groups. For a minute Travis thought he spotted the top of a bronze haired lady, but when she turned around, it wasn't a face he recognized. Connor was still standing closely next to him, and Travis held onto his brother. In this mess he might loose his brother, and he wasn't about to let that happen.

"EVERYONE MOVE!" A police officer and several state officials were holding megaphones and pushing back the crowd, helping people escape the burning building. "EVERYONE BACK, EVERYONE GET AWAY-!"

With the sound of a gun shooting through steel, or wood splintering from it's feeble support, Travis watched in horror as him and his brother were pushed back down the blocks, the South tower collapsed in a fury of dust and ashes. Connor gave a frantic cry of alarm, but it was useless to run to the building. The crowds were so packed, the only way to move was far.

"MOM!" Connor screamed, his face etched with tears. Travis felt his own eyes watering, and not from the dust in the air. "MOM! NO!"

As the were pushed back into a safe zone, where police were loading victims and the people in need of help into ambulances, him and Connor clung to each other as they let tears fall from their little boy cheeks. Travis loosened the grip in his palm, to realize he was still clutching the watch he had taken from his mother back when they had been up in the tower.

He opened his palm and gazed on the glassed surface of the ticking watch, still working and beating- while his mother's heart probably wouldn't._ 9:59_. Now _10:00._

He closed his palm, gripping his brother's hand tightly, two things he vowed he would never lose sight of ever again.

* * *

"What's your name?" A woman's voice asked softly. Travis peered his head over the tiny trash can. "I promise, I won't hurt you." She took tiny steps towards them.

Connor peeped his head out. "Who are you?" He asked timidly.

"It's okay." she said in a soothing voice. "Please come out, I can help you two."

They didn't move.

"I have candy," she offered. Travis felt his stomach rumble. "Candy?" Connor mumbled, and stepped out curiously.

Travis followed his brother, to face a woman wearing a tiny red white and blue Sweet on America uniform, with long dark brown hair, and soft tender eyes. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "There are two of you."

"I'm Travis." Travis said. "This is my brother Connor. Who are you?"

"Sally," the woman said. "I work at this candystore. I saw you and your brother sneaking around yesterday, and I followed you here when I saw you peeking out this morning. Do you two have parents?"

Travis took a tender step forward. "No," he said. "Please don't give us to the people in the big coats. They'll take us away."

Sally smiled, offering her hand and leaning down on one knee. "No people in big coats," she promised. "Would you like something to eat?"

* * *

Travis felt his throat go dry. "Our mom told us we shouldn't take rides with strangers," he mumbled.

Sally pursed her lips. "You remind me of my son," she said affectionately. "And I guess I would feel the same way."

"You have a son?" Connor asked. "What's his name?"

"Percy. He's about your age." Her eyes twinkled with amusement. "He gets in trouble a lot at school."

"Yeah..school..." Travis and Connor had been scouring the streets of New York City. Travis wasn't sure why they stuck around for so long- but it was a naive hope their mother had survived, and was looking for them all over the city. That was almost a month ago, now. They'd been running from cops and social services ever since. So far, they'd been lucky to have been avoided.

"Are you sure you don't know how to find your father?" Sally asked them gently. Travis nodded quietly. They had told her how their mother had been taken in the _9/11_ incident- as the people now called it- a horrible attack on national security, and the loss of many innocent people's lives.

"It's okay then," Sally took off her faded apron and picked up two little bags of sweets. "One for each of you," she said. "I know a place where you can live. It's safer than the streets."

"What's it called?" Connor asked, already bought by her in the moment she handed them candy.

"It's a summer camp," she said, picking up her coat and taking out a set of keys. "For special kids. Kids like you."

"Kids who lost their parents?" Travis asked, confused.

She hid a smile. "Not all the time," she said. "I'll show you."

And that is how they ended up in the backseat of a stranger's car, from whom they met at the back of a candy store, and had offered them candy and a ride to a place for them to live.

They drove in silence, Connor mindlessly playing with his fingers, and Travis watching the city and the scenery fly by them as they drove. He kept his hands wrapped around the watch, which made a content ticking noise as it continued to live and work, other than it's original purpose to tell the time. But it meant more to the two of them. It was the last thing they had left besides each other.

Sally turned into a road, with bumpy grids and uneven pavement. They continued down the road, until they passed a sign that said something like:_ Delphi Strawberry Farm_ or something like that, and they stopped at a little clearing with a large pine tree leaning gently over a little gate.

"Okay," Sally said. "I can't follow you here. But I want you to run as fast as you can, up that hill, and past the big pine tree. Go talk to whoever is there."

"Thank you, Sally." Connor said, opening the door and climbing out of the backseat. Travis followed delicately behind him. They turned to see her face, and she rolled down the window.

"Go," she said. "You'll be safe here. I promise."

Was she just dumping them out in the middle of the woods? Connor wondered. Sure, she gave them candy, but usually they don't just hand candy out to little kids and drive them out of the city and into a 'summer camp' when school had already started. It didn't make much sense.

She rolled down the window. "Be careful." she said. "Stay with each other."

"Yes, mother," Connor rolled his eyes sarcastically. But even as he said it- even as a joke- it felt a deep pang somewhere deep in his heart.

Sally smiled one last time, and backed up the car slowly, and drove away. A few moments later, all that was left was a little dust cloud from the tires as she headed back to her life- and her son.

Connor looked at his brother, hesitantly. Travis was the older one. He would make the call on this one.

"Together." Travis took his little brother's hand. They walked up the hill, passing the giant pine tree that loped it's giant arms around a little opening. They pushed passed the needles, noticing how young the tree looked. The soil looked like it had just been upturned, as if it was just planted.

They stopped, in awe as a whole other world was laid out behind the secret glade.

* * *

"It's today, isn't it." Travis looked down at his brother. It wasn't a question. They both knew.

The other eleven year old bowed his head. "Nine eleven." he said. "Nine hundred and eleven."

"Just like us," Connor said. "We're eleven now too."

"Guys," their cabin leader, Luke said. He had just been reinstated as their counselor, with an angry red scar running down his face from his last quest. He looked a little bitter sometimes, but mostly in pain. He'd appeared at the edge of camp practically starved to death, and hallucinating. Connor and Travis had been on watch with a little annoying child of Athena, named Annabeth, who rambled about architecture and other smart things until Connor and Travis' ears almost fell off. Then they had spotted Luke at the edge of the border. "It's time for dinner." Their cabinmates- siblings of the same god, Apparently Hermes (although they had been in this cabin to begin with, so it didn't matter.) and a few unclaimed.

Travis and Connor didn't move, their heads tipped over in a solemn prayer. Luke leaned over to them.

"You guys okay?" He asked gently. Travis looked up at his older half-brother, the one who had taken care of them when they had first arrived at camp. The gossip of the other cabins- he had showed up with the (annoying) girl named Annabeth, and a daughter of Zeus named Thalia, who had died and turned into a pine tree at the edge of camp. It happened just a few days right before Travis and Connor had lost everything in a terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of New York. Luke had been there for them, even when he became the cabin counselor and had to take care of all of them. Luke had known. He cared.

"Look," Luke said, his eyes momentarily wincing as he stretched out his jaw. "I know it's hard, but we can all move on. We just don't forget. Now do you guys want to come to dinner?"

Connor nodded his head, pulling his brother along. Travis pulled something off the nightstand as they left- a bronze watch (he now knew it was made of Celestial bronze, a metal used to make weapons) with an engraving and diamond embroidery.

* * *

"It's gonna be eleven years." Connor stared out at the edge of camp. Him and his brother- (although Travis was the current Cabin eleven counselor)- hadn't really changed much over the years.

They were the ones that pulled the pranks, and laughed, and made inappropriate jokes and cracks that made everyone laugh. Yet with each tear of laughter, or giggle, or elation of pulling another fool-proof prank, it brought back a harsh stab of the things they did with their own moms.

And here they were, headed towards a whole new meaning of war and sacrifice. And after they had just won the last one! But this time they met someone who felt the same way.

They still pulled jokes and pretended to laugh everything off, but they caught the attention of another troubled kid like them, who drank way too many caffeinated beverages, and laughed at everything whether it was funny or not.

"Eleven years is a long time." Leo said solemnly from his workbench, as he swung upside down and to the sides of the front of the ship. Leo looked like all the blood was rushing to his head, which was probably why he was rambling. "I think for our anniversaries we should all do something special."

"Dude, you're gonna pass out soon," Travis warned the son of Hephaestus. Leo shrugged.  
"Eh, I pass out all the time." He said. "Remember when you guys dropped that stink bomb in my cabin? Oh gods, I thought I was gonna die..."

So they got along with that screwed up, crazy child, that was suffering just as much as they were. And they could come to him if they needed to laugh, or prank, or get juicy gossip and dirt on a crush Travis had in the Demeter cabin. Leo had a deadline hanging over his head, with combining the camps and finishing his ship project. He was working from dawn to dusk, and even later all the time. Not so much for fun anymore. June was coming to a close, and Leo was being pressure to finish his project quickly.

Leo made jokes and occasionally pulled pranks like they did, having found a similar venting system for emotion. Hide it behind a few laughs, and everyone thinks you're okay. They understood and respected Leo, and he understood and respected them.

"You know, I could set you guys up," Leo frowned and banged a wrench on a blinking light from one of Festus' eyes. "I have good connections."

"You mean your girlfriend, Piper."

"HA!" Leo coughed loudly. "She's dating Jason."

"You sound bitter."

Leo coughed louder and ignored Travis' comment. "Ah crap, something is leaking from his head again." He pulled out a long strip of masking tape from his toolbelt, and stripped it onto the masthead. Welcome to the building procedure of demigods. Behold. Duct tape and breathmint supported ship. Extra minty freshness and stickiness ensured!

"You just wish you were Jason." Connor cooed. "Poor Leo the lover boy."

"Shut up," Leo pushed himself away from the masthead angrily. Sadly, he was also doomed by the force of the revolution of the string to come back to it, so he hit his head against the back of the ship. He cursed in Spanish while Connor and Travis laughed.

Piper and Jason wandered into the room. "Leo, when's it gonna be done?" Jason asked, examining the ship from the ground. Piper played with a little set up of dolls, which looked like giant wooden chessboard pieces. It was a strategy set, Annabeth had said.

"Calm your horses," Leo waved his hand off, making him spin around in a tight formation from his string. "And I need my own comic relief. No offense Jason, your jokes are boring, and Piper, you just laugh too hard to help me comprehend what you're trying to tell me."

Piper snorted, and Jason looked a little offended. "And your jokes are much better?"

"Nope," Travis said, looping around the ship. "Hey, who wants some eggnog?"

"NO!" Leo, Piper, and Jason yelled. "No repeats of Christmas, please," Leo begged.

Connor raised and eyebrow, and Travis flashed a wicked grin at Leo. "What happened that we don't know about and could possibly and probably will blackmail you with?"

"Everyone out," Leo pulled himself up the cable to reach a higher point on Festus' neck. "I need to work. Con, Trav, we'll work something out...I'm not sure I'll be here to uhh...but we'll work something out."

They nodded, but their minds were spinning with ideas to possibly dump the Ares cabin into the lake in the middle of the night, or fill the Demeter cabin with confetti grass and easter eggs.

* * *

"This is it." Connor looked up to the top of the skyscraper. "I can't believe it."

They had gone alone, because their friend Leo was off fighting a war across the sea to go save Piper and Jason from a surprise attack near the Sea of Monsters. He'd said he was sorry to miss it, but it was too important to them to miss.

"Nine hundred and Eleven." Travis whispered. "It's now twelve years."

People passed by them, admiring the building from the ground, but Travis and Connor were looking at things that weren't there.

"We haven't been back for almost twelve years," Connor said quietly. "It's changed so much."

They went into the public courtyard. On the twelfth anniversary- 9/11/13- they had finally come back, having 'borrowed' (no, they stole it.) one of the camp vans.

In a different world, they saw where the towers had first stood, so tall and proud and unbreakable. Instead, sat two large round fountains where the main lobby for their building had first stood. Water fell freely from the top of the fountain, and engraved into the sidewalks said:

_Here, on 9/11/01,_  
_Many people lost their lives._  
_And other people lost the lives of their loved ones._  
_But here, is a spot of remembrance._  
_They aren't lost._  
_They never left._  
_They are here. In this square._  
_America didn't simply crumble from this tragic event._  
_It rebuilt itself._  
_And even though it may have scarred our history,_  
_and we can never find anything to replace the things we lost,_  
_we can lay to rest_  
_a final offering._  
_The Freedom Tower._  
_A symbol of our freedom_  
_and our struggle_  
_to rebuild ourselves._  
_Long Live The World Trade Center_  
_~ Long Live Our Heroes ~_

Connor took his brother's shoulder for support. They didn't have a joke, or a witty statement, or anything to say at all. It was a rare moment to leave both of them speechless.

No one forgot what happened that day. Neither did the lives of the people who were lost in the collapse, or the destruction of innocent people. Many were scarred by such a catastrophic event.

Scars heal.

Connor and Travis led each other to the closer fountain- the one that was sitting in the foundation of the South Twin Tower. The one that had caused the loss of their mother.

They didn't say anything for a while. When they were about to leave, Travis held his brother back.

"One sec," he said. "I gotta do something."

Between the two fountains, and in the entrance of the new tower- the Freedom Tower- so tall and as magnificent and as breathtaking as any building these two could ever have so much meaning to- not even Olympus could be compared to this building. It meant literally the world to them.

Travis pushed aside some of the fresh compost and gravel next to the rosebushes. He slipped out a tiny diamond encrusted watch, it's little hands still frozen on a time: _11:11_

"Make a wish," Travis mumbled. His brother leaned down next to him.

He pushed it into the ground, and softly layered the earth over it. He patted it down so it looked undisturbed, but he knew he made the right choice.

Luke, even as the traitor and the hero he was, had been right. His face had been scarred from a blow to his face, but his bitterness healed when he made his final choice to become a hero. You have to learn to forgive, and to let go. But you don't forget. Don't forget for anything.

The two walked away, keeping close and their eyes captured on the shining silver building. Don't forget.

When they had driven back, it was a strong silence. Finally Travis held out his hand as they came to the edge of camp- almost in the same place they had discovered Camp Half-Blood so many years ago.

A scar was still there, but faint enough to remember it was there. And with time, it would heal, but never completely. They didn't want to forget what happened. A scar like Luke, who had become a hero. Heroes had fame that never died, like the people that died on that day, and the brave people who fought to keep their people safe.

Connor looked up at his brother and took his hand. "Together."

* * *

**Yeesh, that was horribly depressing. As it should be, because this is a day we shouldn't forget. A special shout out to those of you who don't know:**

**1- The Freedom Tower is going to be completed some time in 2013. I can't wait to take a drive to the city and see it.**

**2- 9/11 Is not something to take lightly. I was alive then. It is a day we shouldn't forget. So don't.**

**3- The elevators in the Twin towers are really really ****_fast. _****You can defy gravity and become an astronaut for about twenty seconds before gravity catches up with you and you hit your head on the ceiling. **

**4- This is dedicated to anyone who lost their life in any of the 9/11 incidents, and the families who lost their loved ones on the flights and in the crashes. Those people are heroes, and they deserve to be remembered.**

**So I'm not gonna be really desperate, but...please review? I love criticism! All types! As long as you don't insult me and call my parents llamas, do whatever! Review! It will make you and me really happy! (and sexy!) Okay maybe not that, because I'm Kaylee's and no one can have me. ._.**

**Oookkaayy I'm gonna go now. **

**~ universal**

**Ps.- The lady who offered them candy? If it wasn't obvious, that was Percy's mom. I figured she did a test run before she ever dropped Percy off at camp, because how else would she have known where it was? :D **


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